The Week in Brief

This summer, Harvard University's daily student newspaper, the Crimson, enraged many labor activists with its seemingly hypocritical use of cheap third-world labor.

In an effort to create a full Internet archive of the newspaper, which has been published continuously for the past 128 years, the Crimson hired Cambodian workers to type old issues of the newspaper for 40 cents an hour.

The Crimson has repeatedly spoken out against sweatshop labor and has endorsed the Harvard Living Wage Campaign, a group that demands Harvard pay its workers $10.25 an hour. The Crimson has also supported the Progressive Student Labor Movement's (PSLM) campaign for the increased monitoring of conditions in the factories where Harvard apparel and other goods are produced.

In an editorial printed last spring, the Crimson wrote that Harvard is "an institution whose commitment has long extended beyond pure academics to include the betterment of its communities, at home and abroad" and urged the Harvard administration to increase its workers' pay.

The Crimson defended its decision as far more complex than its critics acknowledged. "Are we getting cheap labor?" asked the Crimson's president, senior C. Matthew MacInnis, in an interview with the Boston Globe. "Of course...you can't employ someone in North America to do this kind of job at this cost."

But MacInnis emphasized that the wages being paid to the Cambodian workers are significantly higher than those they ordinarily receive for their work in garment factories, and therefore are quite good by Cambodian standards. Furthermore, the workers will be given English lessons and medical benefits, which is unusual in the Cambodian workplace.

The work is being contracted to a company called Digital Divide Data by the non- profit group Follow Your Dreams Cambodia. The group, founded by a Harvard alumnus, is attempting to improve both conditions and wages for workers in Cambodia by bringing a number of high-tech jobs into the country. MacInnis told the Boston Globe that he was certain the workers are being treated well.

Even some critics of the Crimson's decision acknowledge it will benefit Cambodians who could not otherwise have found jobs. Many of the workers are disabled, missing fingers or limbs, and are being given the opportunity not only to work, but also to gain high-tech skills that will help them find future employment. —Anna Arkin-Gallagher

The Roots set to rock New Haven Green

Some hip-hop fans at Yale, disappointed by the University's selection of the poppy rock band Counting Crows to perform at a student show this fall, will find solace in a free concert to be held Sat., Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m. on the New Haven Green. The Roots will headline the Elm City show before heading to Hamburg, Germany to launch a European tour. The concert will also feature legendary Rastafarian poet Mutabaruka.

The Roots, a six-man ensemble hailing from "Illadelph" (a.k.a. Philadelphia), has enjoyed a steady underground following among hip-hop connoisseurs and alternative music fans since its 1993 debut Organix. Fans appreciate The Roots for their innovative style, which relies on live music and "beat boxing"—a rarity in the sample-heavy world of hip-hop. The group found a broader audience with its more commercial 1996 release, Illadelph Halflife, and hit the mainstream with 1999's Things Fall Apart.

Mutabaruka hit the reggae scene in the early '80s with Every Time I `Ear Dis Sound, an album that blended poetry and dub music to create hard beats that strongly contrasted with the softer reggae sound of the time.

New Haven's Office of Cultural Affairs is promoting the concert as part of its "Summer of Fun." The city hopes the series of free events, which finishes this week, will help highlight its new motto—"C'mon, live a little!" —Zander Dryer

Med school site plagued by glitches

Applying to medical school has always been a cumbersome and tedious process. That's why a consortium of over 100 U.S. medical schools joined forces to create the American Medical College Application Service (AMCAS), a centralized, Web-based common application. AMCAS was designed to automatically validate and sort student information.

But since its delayed launch on Sun., Apr. 15, the ambitious system has been plagued by a series of technical glitches and server overloads. Rather than ease the application process, AMCAS has merely created more anxiety for candidates and admissions officers.

"Abysmal," said Senior Associate Director of Undergraduate Career Services Edward Miller, summarizing AMCAS's performance. "The system caused nothing less than total frustration for lots of students."

According to Miller, some applicants spent as many as 35 hours struggling with the web-based application. "One Yale student was charged an outrageous $4,500 application fee due to a transmission error," Miller said. "The system has even had problems doing simple tasks such as calculating GPAs."

Richard Silverman, director of admissions at the Yale School of Medicine (YSM), describes the damage control implemented by AMCAS as "effective" but "slow." As of Tues., Sept. 4, only one-fifth of the 3,000-some AMCAS applications for YSM had been successfully transmitted to and confirmed by the admissions office.

Technical errors and frequent delays have prompted at least 50 schools, including YSM, to adopt special "transition-year" procedures that allow candidates to send paper applications directly to schools. Each school has adopted a slightly different alternative application procedure, further increasing the amount of paperwork required of students. Miller estimated that AMCAS may have caused a 10-week delay in the admissions process for some medical schools.

Despite the complications, Silverman said that YSM has no intention of pulling out of AMCAS for the 2003 enrollment cycle. "Tremendous resources have been dedicated for repairing this well-intentioned but complicated system," Silverman said. "I doubt that major problems would linger until the April of next year." — Alison Yang

Around the Ivies

Penn

In response to student complaints last semester over meal plan requirements for undergraduates, Dining Services at Penn recently adjusted the options available to its students. The announcement that freshmen would have to purchase a minimum of 17 meals per week enraged the Undergraduate Assembly, which distributed a petition that asserted the changes were made without regard for student input. This petition, circulated by the Penn Association for Reducing the Usual Freshman Fifteen (PARUFF), was successful, and Dining Services lowered the requirement to a minimum of 14 meals per week.

Columbia

Just days after Columbia opened its newly renovated River Hill dormitory, a raging fire in a student's room set off sprinkler systems and caused damage throughout the building.

According to reports from university residence hall officials, senior Latham Thomas started the fire by burning incense in her room. The incense lit Thomas's curtains on fire. Thomas tried to put out the fire herself, even as flames spread to her mattress. She received second-degree burns on her arms and hands. A student in a nearby dormitory alerted Columbia officials when she noticed flames jumping out of Thomas's window. Burning incense in residence halls is a violation of Columbia policy. Officials have yet to decide whether Thomas will face disciplinary action.

Brown

At Brown's convocation on Tues., Sept. 4, the university's new president, Ruth Simmons, spoke to the students about the issues raised last spring, when students stole copies of the Brown Daily Herald to protest an advertisement that attacked the idea of paying reparations for slavery. Simmons challenged students to confront the raw meaning of absolute free speech. She explained that the path to freedom of speech "must remain passable even if the dishonorable must pass."

—Compiled by Lise Clavel and Zander Dryer from the Daily Pennsylvanian, the Columbia Spectator, and the Brown Daily Herald.

Heard

Index

1. Cost of Dannon yogurt when Gourmet Heaven opened, in dollars 1.50

2. Cost of Dannon yogurt at Gourmet Heaven now, in dollars 1.25

3. Cost of Dannon yogurt at Krauszer's (deceased), in dollars .99

4. Percent of Yale administrators who cited Krauszer's prices as a reason for its closure 100

5. Dollar price of stale nachos purchased by the Herald at Gourmet Heaven 2.89 

6. Percent of Herald editors who are big fans of stale nachos 0

7. Number of people in line at Gourmet Heaven at 1:10 a.m. Friday 10

8. Number of alternatives these people had 0

9. Number of classes I can shop at Yale 2,000

10. Number of organizations I could join at the frosh bazaar 250

11. Number of 24-hour convenience stores in which I can shop 1

12. Number of classes at Yale on how to restrain monopolies and collusion 1

—Compiled by Kushal Dave

Sources: 1,3,4) Herald archive; 2,7) crossing the street; 8, 11) math; 5, 6) bad taste in my mouth; 9,10) the admissions web page; 12) the nifty course search.

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